richpez for mae

4

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Joey's first day of lectures went extremely well, meeting all his new classmates and lecturers that he was going to be with for the next 3 years, as well as starting to familiarise himself with the campus that just the day before had seemed vast and daunting, long corridors almost impossible to navigate but now seemed more manageable.

As Joey was leaving his 3 pm lecture, he chatted away to a new guy who he met in his acting class, Brian, about their classes that day and their experience of moving onto campus just a few days prior. They ended up finding out that they live in the same building, but Brian lived a floor below Joey, which was nice because at least Joey had made another friend and they lived really close to each other so they could hang out when he was free.

Suddenly, a curly-haired man came bounding towards them from down the hall, Joey recognising that it was Darren as he got closer to them. He had a guitar swung over one shoulder, his rucksack on the opposite shoulder and his phone in his hand.

"Hey, Joey!" Darren smiled as he stopped in front of them, panting slightly, "Thought I might as well walk with you."

"Hey man, you finished for the day?" Joey asked.

"Yeah, I finished an hour ago, just been in one of the studios playing the guitar to pass the time before swim practice."

Darren motioned down the corridor towards the exit so they began to head towards it. "How was your first day? Do you like your lecturers? Have your classes been good? Was it interesting? And also, who's this?"

"Good, yes, yes, yes, this is Brian," Joey answered, chuckling slightly at Darren's rapid-fire questions.

Darren turned to Brian and stuck his hand out.

"I'm Darren Criss, nice to meet you."

"Brian Holden." He replied as he shook his hand. "So you two swim together?"

"Yep, pretty much 24/7 isn't it Richter? At least it's on a scholarship so it's actually worth not having a social life."

Joey pushed the door open and they walked outside, slowly heading towards the sports centre. The sun was high in the sky and the air around them was warm, the light breeze making walking slightly more bearable.

"To be fair my swim timetable isn't that bad since I'm a freshman. But also because you're captain, Damian will definitely have you doing more hours than me. I'm not saying goodbye to my social life yet."

"Speaking of social life, some senior theatre majors are throwing a party tomorrow night, mostly exclusive to seniors but since I know Joey's cool and since you two are friends you must be cool too. I can get you an invite if you want one? There's no swimming tomorrow night because its Friday night and coach likes to have Friday off so that he can kill us Saturday morning. You two up for it?"

Brian looked over at Joey and Joey was quick to reply with "yeah that sounds great, thanks, man. Just tell us where and what time and we'll be there."

"No worries, it's in the Fredrickson Building floor 2. Probably gonna start at 6 but don't get there till like 9 ish so people are a bit tipsy and there are better vibes for when you arrive."

The three boys met a split in the path and Brian bid them farewell, heading back to his dorm while the two other boys headed for the sports centre for practice. They conversed lightly until they reached the building, heading through the doors and into the changing rooms where the other boys were getting changed for practice.

"Afternoon boys!" Darren shouted as he walked through the middle of the changing rooms. "Whos ready to have their asses beat by Donovan this evening?"